Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) cards are slightly larger than a personal credit card and are now widely known and used in the industry. They are used especially with portable personal devices, such as laptop computers, to permit the quick and easy expansion of the capabilities of such portable devices. These PCMCIA cards may be populated with any number and type of circuits including semiconductor modules and are adapted to be easily inserted into a suitable receptacle in, for example, a laptop computer to provide quick, simple and easy increases in capability, e.g. memory, or to act as an interface between the computer and another more specialized accessory circuit or device, e.g. a modem.
These PCMCIA data cards are typically formed of a plastic frame, for carrying a printed circuit board having any number of different modules, flatpacks, semiconductor chips, or other active or passive devices necessary to implement the function of the data card thereon. Metallic top and bottom covers are secured to the frame for providing electromagnetic shielding for the board and the electronic devices disposed on the printed circuit board. The printed circuit board has at one end thereof an integral plug designed for connection with the computer with which it is to be used.
When the card is to be used as an interface, it is necessary that an interface connector be provided on the other end of the card. These interface connectors have, in addition to solder points for connection to the printed circuit board, either pins or sockets as are necessary to mate with the accessory's connector plug. To provide the necessary strength and structural integrity requires to assure a good connection between the data card and the accessory's connector plug, the interface connectors of the prior art molded into the frame as an integral part thereof.
Because of the rapid advances in the semiconductor industry and because of demands for constant improvements to the data cards and accessories used therewith, it is necessary, with the prior art frames, when changes require the redesign of the interface connector, to discard all the frames which had molded therein the now no longer usable interface connector. This caused increased scrap and unnecessary expense.
Additionally, many of these cards are produced in short product runs. Thus, the logistics of obtaining the exact number of unique frames can be considerable and very expensive because of the small number of units required. Indeed many times, because the number of units required are few and the expense of designing the molded frames so high, undesirable compromises are made in the design to avoid the expense of a new frame.